Palo Alto, CA-based VMware announced on April 29 that it has been selected by U.S. Army Futures Command to enable a software factory for soldiers, by soldiers. Together, Army Futures Command and VMware will cultivate the first Soldier-led “Silicon Valley software company” inside the Army. The new initiative will equip soldiers to take up cloud native development practices and help produce software to address current and future mission priorities.
Through the Army Software Factory, the U.S. Army will tap into the deep pool of talent across its workforce and upskill tech-minded soldiers and civilians. Cohorts of Army soldiers and Government civilians will go through a comprehensive program that will begin in the classroom and span critical disciplines including software engineering, design and product management, and platform operations. Soldiers will be paired with a VMware Tanzu Labs expert in their fields for deep on-the-job enablement to learn to build, develop, field and operate software in the same way as the best Silicon Valley companies. For each of the next five years, 30 hand-selected soldiers and civilians from the Army will enter the program every six months.
Working with VMware Tanzu Labs, U.S. Army soldiers will learn how to build portable cloud-native apps, rapidly deliver them to production, and run them in any environment. The Army Software Factory will train and enable soldiers to produce modern software organically. It will prepare soldiers with the DevSecOps practices and software development skills they need for future digital battlefields.
“The capability to develop software at the lowest tactical levels will help us provide better software products. We anticipate long-term cost savings and expect the Software Factory to help us maintain a competitive advantage across Army modernization efforts,” said Gen. John M. Murray, commanding general, U.S. Army Futures Command.
The VMware Tanzu portfolio of products and services has a proven track record of enabling organizations worldwide transform how they build and deliver apps. By leaning into VMware Tanzu, the U.S. Army will bring to bear an accredited Kubernetes-based DevSecOps platform, modern developer tooling and open source projects. This streamlined path to production will foster rapid software development and delivery, improving software fielding timelines for the U.S. Army.
“Successful organizations build apps to deliver specific outcomes,” said Ajay Patel, VMware’s general manager, modern applications business unit. “The Army has that focus, and we’re honored to work with them to enable soldiers to write software that serves mission priorities. It will bring the best of VMware Tanzu products and principles to the Army and help them build capabilities that will have a lasting impact.”
Source: VMware
By 
